6 Susanne Bauer and Tanja Penter
who carried out extensive field research and interviews in the 1990s, she paid
special attention to the socio-cultural consequences of radioactive contamination, in particular, the livelihoods of various ethnic and religious groups,
including the nutritional traditions of the population, as well as everyday life
and socio-cultural practices in the zone of increased radiation. Her surveys
from 1993 and 1998 revealed that despite the fact that the residents of the
Techa river villages had already been informed about the danger of contamination with radionuclides, the Techa river and especially its floodplain were
actively used by the local peoples. Moreover, the fish of the river, an everyday
food supply, were a significant source of radionuclide intake into the human
body. During the economic transition crisis of the 1990s, people turned to
traditional practices of natural resource use, including fishing. Komarova’s
1998 survey showed that a majority of the inhabitants of the contaminated
area organized their diet, relying mainly on their own farms, as the purchasing power of most of the local people was so low that they were barely able
to acquire the minimum of what they needed.
As Komarova has described, social and cultural dimensions can affect the
conditions of radiation exposure: in specific conditions that are equally dangerous to all residents, the commitment to different cultural and religious
norms can be an ecologically significant factor that, to some extent, improved
or aggravated the psychological and physical wellbeing of the residents of
the area, prevented or provoked radiation-related illnesses, i.e., served as a
dose-forming or dose-decreasing factor. With their work since the end of
the Soviet Union, social anthropologists like Komarova have laid important
foundations for public debates on societal issues as well as on environmental
justice and compensation policies. In this way, ethnographic research became
both social science and civil rights activism; ethnographic research aimed
to foster literacy as to radiation and health by working with the local population and to improve general living conditions in the Techa river villages.
Last but not least, Komarova’s studies take into account gender perspectives
and showed how women dealt with the challenges of nuclear legacies. 16 The
work by Galina Komarova and other scientists in the 1990s has sharpened our
awareness of how people’s everyday practices are an important yet neglected
part in the social and historical studies of Cold War nuclearity.
The concept of “legacy” of the nuclear age has been used frequently for
example for the transformed landscapes after nuclear testing in the Pacific and
Central Asia as well as in the environmental justice literature. 17 The atomic
age has recently featured prominently in studies of the sociology and history
of the atomic age as well as in Cold War studies as legacy has been a core
concept also used widely in the public sphere, such as in UN documents and
NGO reports. Legacies are often invisible but can linger and imply “slow
violence.” 18 Invisibility has been central to studies of science and technology
studies (STS) and social studies of radiation. 19 Social scientists and historians have recently proposed “atomic heritage studies” as a broad and open
engagement of interdisciplinary scholarship in social and cultural studies,
who carried out extensive field research and interviews in the 1990s, she paid
special attention to the socio-cultural consequences of radioactive contamination, in particular, the livelihoods of various ethnic and religious groups,
including the nutritional traditions of the population, as well as everyday life
and socio-cultural practices in the zone of increased radiation. Her surveys
from 1993 and 1998 revealed that despite the fact that the residents of the
Techa river villages had already been informed about the danger of contamination with radionuclides, the Techa river and especially its floodplain were
actively used by the local peoples. Moreover, the fish of the river, an everyday
food supply, were a significant source of radionuclide intake into the human
body. During the economic transition crisis of the 1990s, people turned to
traditional practices of natural resource use, including fishing. Komarova’s
1998 survey showed that a majority of the inhabitants of the contaminated
area organized their diet, relying mainly on their own farms, as the purchasing power of most of the local people was so low that they were barely able
to acquire the minimum of what they needed.
As Komarova has described, social and cultural dimensions can affect the
conditions of radiation exposure: in specific conditions that are equally dangerous to all residents, the commitment to different cultural and religious
norms can be an ecologically significant factor that, to some extent, improved
or aggravated the psychological and physical wellbeing of the residents of
the area, prevented or provoked radiation-related illnesses, i.e., served as a
dose-forming or dose-decreasing factor. With their work since the end of
the Soviet Union, social anthropologists like Komarova have laid important
foundations for public debates on societal issues as well as on environmental
justice and compensation policies. In this way, ethnographic research became
both social science and civil rights activism; ethnographic research aimed
to foster literacy as to radiation and health by working with the local population and to improve general living conditions in the Techa river villages.
Last but not least, Komarova’s studies take into account gender perspectives
and showed how women dealt with the challenges of nuclear legacies. 16 The
work by Galina Komarova and other scientists in the 1990s has sharpened our
awareness of how people’s everyday practices are an important yet neglected
part in the social and historical studies of Cold War nuclearity.
The concept of “legacy” of the nuclear age has been used frequently for
example for the transformed landscapes after nuclear testing in the Pacific and
Central Asia as well as in the environmental justice literature. 17 The atomic
age has recently featured prominently in studies of the sociology and history
of the atomic age as well as in Cold War studies as legacy has been a core
concept also used widely in the public sphere, such as in UN documents and
NGO reports. Legacies are often invisible but can linger and imply “slow
violence.” 18 Invisibility has been central to studies of science and technology
studies (STS) and social studies of radiation. 19 Social scientists and historians have recently proposed “atomic heritage studies” as a broad and open
engagement of interdisciplinary scholarship in social and cultural studies,